Haiti (North America)

This months bean I want to talk about Haiti. To begin an amazing fact about Haiti, is it was the 1st country in the world to abolish slavery at the beginning of the 1800’s. The U.S.A. was close to follow as the 4th in the ending of the thousands of years old practice, before the new world set the trend. After the new world it didn’t take long before it began to be abolished. Unfortunately many other injustices still took another century plus to begin amending, but never the less, the new world had a new perspective on the old ways of the old countries. Haiti originally was occupied by France and Spain, but after being liberated in a revolution by Toussaint Louverture, the first black general in the French army, Haiti was liberated. After a short dispute with the Spanish side of the island, they split creating the current countries we have today of the Dominican Republic (Spanish) and Haiti (French).

This brings us now to coffee, something Haiti has been growing more and more of recently. A vendor in Manassas has brought this great coffee to my attention. I discovered Cafe Kreyol at the Coffee Fest in NYC at the Javitz Center. As a new business, with zero sales produced at the the time, Cafe Kreyol treated me with respect and worked with me more than most vendors were willing to at that time. This reflects in their model, as well as the owner Joey, who travels to Haiti and the Dominican Republic where he cultivates his relationships as well as the harvest. His passion is to help these developing areas of the world where coffee is grown to create a more prosperous harvest for the people.

In Haiti they have managed to grow a hybrid of the Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee which is one of the most recognized coffee beans, but also one of the most overpriced in many respects. Cafe Kreyol’s Haiti Blue Coffees offer that same Jamaican Blue taste, without the Jamaican Blue markup. With a direct trade relationship as well, this benefits the farmer who is making 4x fair trade wages, again without all the mark ups of middle men getting in the way of fair trade pricing.

Haiti has been trying to rebound since 1986 and it’s release from an autocratic government that had ruled since the 50’s. Unfortunately due to politics and natural disasters they have struggled to get back on track. We have many pockets of this population spread throughout the U.S.A. and if you ever get a chance to visit one of their churches it’s a true treat. Occasionally I had this privilege in Brooklyn, N.Y. where I would occasionally attend liturgy with many people of the Caribbean. As I would tell many, it felt like a Catholic mass crossed with a Bob Marley concert. Very uplifting. In close, Haiti is another one of those countries that your coffee purchase significantly helps in growing their economy. Something we take for granted as Americans is every dollar we spend outside of this country dramatically impacts others if we do it responsibly, supporting the individual people, with direct relationships, instead of going through the governments or middle men which often squander our resources or take advantage of the farmers.

A great picture from the Haitian church I visited in Brooklyn. Kool story in this image, the bishop some how got a hold of one of my prayers cards, from an usher. It was the feast day of my favorite St. Therese who I talk about endlessly. They had a prayer already in the program for her, but some how, through the ushers, they spread my holy cards throughout the whole church, including the bishop. He was reading my prayer instead. Very kool moment, thanks Therese.